April 9, 2004

• First of all, I apologize profusely for not having read many of your blogs lately.  My time has been consumed by other things and when I read your blogs, I like to sit down with enough time to give them a good reading and not just whiz through them.  The longer I wait, though, the longer it’ll take me to get through them all!

  
  

   

  
  

  I can’t remember just what’s specifically been consuming my time this past week though I know we did go out shopping one night, I spent time getting the old computer finished up for my nephew, I watched “Bruce Almighty” again, spent three hours one evening getting my In-laws computer back to working condition and then, last night, I spent around four hours setting up the old computer for my nephew and then networking it with their existing computer as well as trying to get their existing computer working efficiently again.  There are still a couple of things I should do to it to really make it rock but it was too late last night to continue with it.  Now I have the old Compaq to get set up and running well again in the spare bedroom.

  
  

   

  
  

  On top of that, I’ve been thinking about what songs I want to do for XP (eXtra Praise, eXtra Prayer) for this Saturday Night.  We’ve been having a sort of dialogue about the exact elements of the service itself this week and it makes me think that sometimes we just try too hard and overlook the simplicity of God’s message (and work) as well as lack trust in ourselves to hear what God is saying and lack trust in Him to work through us no matter how well or how poorly we pull it all off in our own eyes. 

  
  

   

  
  

  I was down to Elizabeth, PA twice this week to check on the progress of a couple of jobs I had going on at Lock & Dam 3.  On the way home one day I stopped at the Half-Price Books which is down that direction and found “The Ragamuffin Gospel” (Brennan Manning) for $2.  It’s a book I’ve heard of but never pursued but there it was, I bought it, and now I’ve been reading it.  I’m only in the first chapter but I can already say it is a great book in its simplicity of message.  I suppose you could say I’m biased because it’s preaching my message but I’d rather take it as a confirmation that my thinking is progressing in the direction that God wants it to go.  I have many things underlined in it already and it’s hard to decide what to share with you today so I will take the following:

  
  

   

  
  

  “If a random sample of one thousand American Christians were taken today, the majority would define faith as belief in the existence of God.  In earlier times it did not take faith to believe that God existed – almost everyone took that for granted.  Rather, faith had to do with one’s relationship to God – whether one trusted in God.  The difference between faith as ‘belief in something that may or may not exist’, and faith as ‘trusting in God’ is enormous.  The first is a matter of the head, the second a matter of the heart.  The first can leave us unchanged, the second intrinsically brings change.” [Marcus S. Borg, Jesus, A New Vision, Spirit, Culture and the Life of Discipleship (New York: Harper & Row, 1987), p. 35 as quoted by Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel (Porland, Oregon: Multinomah Press, 1990), p.24-25]
  
  

  
  

  Here’s another allusion to the head knowledge vs. heart knowledge that I’ve spoken of in past blogs and to which each and every day brings new revelation.  My humanness will never “understand” God to the fullest because He is Spirit and to know Him is to have the law written in our hearts where it becomes our guiding force, not in our heads where it becomes an impossible task to pull off and an impossible burden that we try and heap on unbelievers. 

  
  

   

  
  

  This is the right time to reevaluate our beliefs and to reaffirm that “the central affirmation of the Reformation stands: through no merit of ours, but by his mercy, we have been restored to a right relationship with God through the life, death, and resurrection of his beloved Son.  This is the Good News, the gospel of grace.” [Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel (Porland, Oregon: Multinomah Press, 1990), p.18]

  
  

   

  
  

  This is the Good News, the gospel of grace!

  
  

   

  
  

  Have a great and blessed weekend! 

  
  

   

  
  

  God IS Good!
  
  Go Ahead! Say It! Believe It! Confess It!
  
  You're Invited!!
  
  Go to The Prayer List , don't forget the others in need!

  
  

   

  
  

  "Next to the wonder of seeing my Savior will be, I think, the wonder that I made so little use of the power of prayer." - D.L. Moody

  
  

   

  
  

  Due to some confusion as to where to send prayer requests I want to clarify that you can use the email link at Isaiah56 (The Prayer List) or use this link (Click Here).  Please include your xanga address so I know who you are!

  
  

   

  • 1:03 pm
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